Cycling-Katusha team escape suspension after doping tests (Reuters)
The Katusha World Tour cycling team have escaped suspension despite two of their riders failing drugs tests in the space of a year, the International Cycling Union (UCI) said on Tuesday after a disciplinary commission hearing. The commission ruled, however, that the conditions for a suspension of the Russian team had not been met because the first positive test involving Italian Luca Paolini was for cocaine taken on a recreational basis. “The President of the Commission has expressed that he could share the view that it would be disproportionate to suspend a team on the basis that one of its members (uses) a social drug, the consumption of which is not related to sporting performance.” Paolini tested positive during last year’s Tour de France.